All Eyes on SCOTUS With Climate Case on Deck

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Real Clear Energy

When the U.S. Supreme Court reconvenes at the end of this month, it will consider whether to hear a lawsuit that could have significant adverse implications for America’s energy and climate policy over the next decade.  The case was filed by Boulder and other governments in Colorado, and it names Suncor USA and ExxonMobil as defendants. The governments are trying to make the two companies legally liable for climate change by asking their state’s courts to make the companies pay for bridges and other climate-related infrastructure projects in their areas.

If this scenario sounds familiar to Supreme Court watchers, it is.  Last year, the Court heard a nearly identical lawsuit from the City of Baltimore, though that lawsuit named other energy companies as well. The Supreme Court sided with the companies and required the Courts of Appeals to more fully consider whether climate-related claims can be heard in state or federal court. Now, the companies are back, asking the Court to directly answer these questions, namely do claims alleging damages from climate change arise under federal law and, if so, must they be heard in federal court.

 

Whether and how the Court answers these questions will impact America’s legal policy for the next decade. This lawsuit is part of a coordinated national litigation campaign, with two dozen similar lawsuits around the country—all by state and local governments that name different combinations of companies that sell Americans our energy. All of these lawsuits are packaged as state claims in an effort to sidestep the Supreme Court’s 2011 ruling in American Electric Power v. Connecticut.